. . . [Richter] has consistently produced albums that manage to surprise with their creativity even as they subtly overwhelm with their emotional impact . . . "In the Garden" begins unhurriedly, caressingly, with melodies that immediately take their place among Richter's most beautiful. With its graceful strings mingling with piano lines that seem simple at first blush, it blossoms according to his penchant for gradually touching the transcendent . . . [the album's closing piece is] stunning in its quietude . . . The juxtaposition between the plaintive string tones and Anderson's performance of Woolf's note, poignant yet conversational in its intimacy, is truly transfixing . . . [in "Three Worlds", Richter seems to make an] argument for music, which speaks with its own language, and allows me to enter into Woolf's world . . . his music allows me to feel a connection to her emotions and the emotions of her characters . . . and further acquaints me with a composer to whom I am always eager to return.

Record Review /
David Bruggink,
Soundblab / 21. January 2017

The last time Max Richter was featured at "A Closer Listen", he was awarded the Album of the Year. This produced enormous expectations for the follow‑up, yet to no one's surprise he's come through again . . . The mood ranges from gorgeously lush ("In the Garden") to somber ("War anthem") to devastatingly aching ("Tuesday") . . . Richter's victory is to provide a soundtrack to Woolf's life, and even deeper, her heart . . .

In his most iconic moments, Richter is an instantly satisfying composer, soundtracking to our dreams and memories . . . "Three Worlds" is morose and cryptic, like the best Richter. It begins with "Words" containing a beautiful church bell and a sample of Woolf reading . . . The calm piano on "In the Garden" which follows contrasts completely . . . The violin accompaniment is simple, but flowering, the passages build and blend and crescendo with ardent movement . . . the album travels back and forth across the familiar ground with mostly glowing results . . . "Three Worlds" is rewarding as a background record as well as cognitive listening. Richter's sound is best served without real pictures but paired with your dreams.

Record Review /
Landon MacDonald,
PopMatters / 27. January 2017

. . . much like Woolf's fiction, Richter seems to echo the stream of consciousness prose, and the exploration of memory and perception in her work . . . On "War Anthem" the cello's deep resounding throb gives way to lighter ascending stings full of heart-rending sorrow. But it's despair leavened with intense beauty . . . Richter ably reflects this progressive prose by combining traditional acoustic instrumentation with ambient electronics . . . [in "Tuesday"] the music swells and recedes, ebbs and flows; the crests crowned with Grace Davidson's pure and high vocal. The result is utterly immersive and makes for a highly emotive conclusion of fitting breadth . . . Max Richter has crafted something that feels like a timeless nod to the past, and yet is an inventive ode to Woolf's modernism. He has followed up the exceptional "Sleep" with yet another dazzling work . . .

Record Review /
Bekki Bemrose,
Drowned in Sound / 27. January 2017

. . . ["Word"] is a stunning way to open the score, and gives credence to Richter's invisible hand shaping the narrative of the dance . . . dips and dives are telegraphed like a routine ballroom dance. Some of it is quite beautiful, foregrounding his graceful piano playing . . . Richter's singular ability to meld electronics into classical arrangements breathes life into this idea, and on pieces like the "The Explorers" or "Modular Astronomy", he deploys electronics that are both silken and pointedly mechanical . . . arresting . . .

Record Review /
Kevin Lozano,
Pitchfork (Chicago) / 30. January 2017

. . . another incredible musical outing . . . a perfect blend of neo-classical and ambient, with electronics scattered throughout . . . the sort of album that requires a listen-through from beginning to end . . . rather excellent for relaxing around my home and even calming the atmosphere in my office at work. Richter's music is very mellow, soft, and easy to just drift off to. Consisting mostly of piano and strings, the music has a calming effect within it's simplicity.

Record Review /
Russell Trunk,
Annecarlini.com / 01. February 2017

Richter provides a perfect eulogy for Woolf . . . Richter's restraint makes "Tuesday" -- it doesn't go for a straight gut-punch, instead moving with grace . . . When it does roll into its climax, it is breathtaking and magnificent, one of Richter's finest singular pieces . . . "Tuesday", even at its most desolate, is still sublime, never allowing itself to be weighed down in sheer depression. And that, in a sense, is the genius of both Richter and "Woolf Works". He does not just blend disparate instruments together, but also a beautiful and painful mix of emotions.

Record Review /
Nathan Stevens,
Spectrum Culture / 01. February 2017

Richter shows his versatility as a composer throughout this album . . . The music for "Mrs Dalloway" is incredibly intimate and has a small-scale setting to go with it. "Utterances like Words" and "In the garden" are simplicity itself and are subtly scored, while "War anthem" features a resonant cello, beautifully played by Hila Karni . . . "Morphology" has a lovely, open texture . . . ["Tuesday" is a powerful meditation where] Richter's musical development is subtle, the elegiac motif generating a deep and lasting power that leads to a final, exhausted coda . . . "Tuesday" is a really impressive piece of work, showing how he can command the attention of an audience over a longer structure . . . Not always the cheeriest album, "Three Worlds" does nonetheless become both a restful and emotionally powerful piece of meditation, a heartfelt response to the works of one of Britain's finest 20th century novelists.

Record Review /
Ben Hogwood,
Arcana.fm / 07. February 2017

. . . a proper recording . . . It¿s difficult to recall compositions with such consuming interpretive power. To be sure, Richter bravely journeys deep into the interior of the fragile, volatile author and her inimitable characters. Be prepared to take the same journey without interruption -- and expect it to hurt a bit.

. . . a masterwork of immense originality and haunting splendor. Richter accomplishes the seemingly impossible -- almost without words, he brings to life the mindscape and creative legacy of one of the greatest artists in the English language . . . exquisite . . .

Record Review /
Maria Popova,
Brain Pickings / 29. May 2017

Absolutely beautiful music . . . [Richter's music is equally colorful,] brilliant and a bit eccentric as in the "Orlando" section and beautiful but wrenching in places as in the two bookend sections, "Mrs. Dalloway" and "The Waves" . . . the lugubrious pace of "The Waves" with its overlying beautiful melody and some synthesizer sounds is positively riveting . . . ["Woolf Works" is] lovely, moving, well-constructed and often very enticing. I strongly recommend this album . . .

. . . [Richter] takes the classical world and he pushes it into the 21st century with his incredibly deft use of vintage electronica . . . If there are artists moving music forward with distinction and a freshness, then Max Richter is one who's doing it and this LP is the culmination of all his work so far.